Years ago, I picked up the 1970 Topps Rookie Card of Miguel Fuentes and Dick Baney that you see here for pocket change — literally a quarter or so because of its rounded corners, small creases and other cardboard fraying that looks like it’s been handled more than a few times by more than a few people.

And for years now it’s been sitting in the page you see here nestled among a group of multi-player RCs from that set which perhaps better marks the end of the 1960s than the beginning of the 1970s with its white cardboard — a finale that stood for more than two decades before an encore. You see, in my younger years, I often found it more interesting to dig into the boxes of the past to spend my pocket change than rip into another pack of a brand I had already pored over plenty other times. That’s how Fuentes and Baney came to reside between cards of Richie Allen, John Mayberry, Jerry Reuss and a Senators card (Wow, defunct team!) that included three players (Three times as good!) and one of the longest names (other than Yaz) I had seen on cardboard as a kid, “Stelmaszek.”

The card here caught my eye because it was an RC of players from the Seattle Pilots, a one-year wonder in MLB that became the Milwaukee Brewers the following season when Bud Selig bought and relocated the franchise. On top of that, I knew that Fuentes held a somber place in baseball history as he was a somewhat promising pitcher whose September call-up and final pitches in the franchise’s final game also were his last as he was murdered less than four months later.

Comics have superheroes and villains of every variety – men, women, aliens.

Over the next several weeks, the women from the two big comic companies are getting their own place in the trading card world.

Cryptozoic Entertainment is releasing DC Comics The Women of Legend Trading Cards in September and Rittenhouse Archives is releasing Women of Marvel Series 2 Trading Cards in November. That’s a whole lot of leather and lace for comic fans to enjoy.

Upper Deck and Wayne Gretzky have worked together a long time – since 1990 to be exact.

The two are keeping the relationship going with Upper Deck signing Gretzky to a new exclusive deal, the company announced in a release today. Autographed Gretzky cards and memorabilia will be found only through Upper Deck.

“As Upper Deck approaches its 25th Anniversary, the announcement of our expanded partnership with Wayne Gretzky couldn’t be better,” said Jason Masherah, president of Upper Deck, in a release. “While Upper Deck collectors continue to get excited about pulling Gretzky autographs from our hockey card packs, puck fans can now look forward to an amazing portfolio of Wayne Gretzky autographed memorabilia as well. We will offer several unique memorabilia pieces that are sure to be a hit with Gretzky fans everywhere.”

With football season right around the corner, companies are ramping up their football products.

TriStar is creating a product specifically for Dallas Cowboys, once the most popular team in the country. TriStar Hidden Treasures Dallas Edition Autographed 8×10 Football Photo Series 3 comes out in late September. The product will feature one 8×10 photo of a current or former Dallas Cowboy player.

However, that wasn’t always the case. For decades, the Canadian national sport was lacrosse — and only lacrosse. Hockey and lacrosse now share that distinction side by side. But Canada has been a hot bed of lacrosse with athletes crossing over between the two sports.

This isn’t just a modern phenomenon as lacrosse has been a huge sport in Canada for the last century. It was so popular that lacrosse trading cards were nearly as popular as hockey cards back in the early 1910s.

If you follow Panini America on Twitter, you might have caught the preview images of Prime Hockey it posted this morning.

The second-year product is the last on the 2012-13 hockey calendar, but one that looks like it won’t disappoint with its jumbo patches and popular tie cards. Here are the images Panini showed off on its Twitter feed for everyone to get a look.

Join Beckett Baseball‘s Chris Olds and Brian Fleischer as they rip into boxes of 2013 Topps Allen & Ginter in this latest edition of Box Busters.

What will they find inside? Watch and find out …

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How can you win our 1/1 card pulled from this box? Tell us what you think of this year’s set and tell us in the comments below. We’ll pick one at random from all comments received (that include an email address) before Sept. 1.

Every month, Beckett puts together a Hot List in its magazines with the top 25 cards of each sport.

Now, we’re putting together a weekly Hot List that encompasses the best of the best because our readers have asked for more. Sometimes the list may include a player or a product instead of just one card. However, this will give collectors a look at what is hot right now.

Here’s the first installment of the Friday Hot List.

1. Yasiel Puig
The hottest baseball rookie has shown no signs of stopping, and cards continue on the same trajectory. Bowman Chrome, Pro Debut, Inception are all hot cards. Then, Allen & Ginter came out and that’s what many collectors are scrambling to get.

James Bond is one of the most iconic characters in movie history. The character has been in dozens of movies and played by a number of actors seamlessly.

How could a trading card company pick just one movie to represent? Sometimes, it can be tough and it seems Rittenhouse Archives is creating a set with a simple name to encompass the series, but there is nothing simple about these cards.

James Bond Autographs & Relics Trading Cards is scheduled to come out October 16. Each box will contain 24 packs with six cards in each pack. Every box will also have two autographs and a relic card, which will be numbered to 300 copies or fewer.

Five Star Football has become a favorite of high-end collectors since Topps introduced it on the market in 2010.

Topps offered a full preview of 2013 Five Star on Friday. Each box will come with four on-card autographs and one jumbo jersey or patch card. Specifically, the breakdown is one Autographed Rookie Card, one Autographed Rookie Patch Card, one Autographed Veteran/Retired or Veteran/Retired Autographed Patch, one Autographed Relic Book or Multi Autograph and one Jumbo Jersey or Jumbo Patch Relic.

For the 2013-14 Black Diamond Hockey release, the card company is including relic cards with actual diamonds in them.

Of course, the Quad Diamond Rookie Gem Relics will be tough to pull, but UD has included them into a new configuration for the December release.

Each box will come with 20 five-card packs, including a bonus UD Ice pack. Collectors should find several Double and Triple Diamond cards in each box with an additional Quad Diamond – and a bonus Quad Diamond card. There will be at least one parallel and two Double Diamond Dual Jersey Puzzles in every box.

Panini America is ramping up its patch cards with the debut of 2012-13 Immaculate Collection basketball.

Actually, Panini wrote on its blog that Immaculate Collection would deliver some of the most unique NBA memorabilia cards ever made.

This high-end product will feature six cards with four hits in every box. Collectors should expect to find an Autograph Patch Rookie Card (numbered to 99 or less), one autograph or autograph patch, one memorabilia card and an additional autograph or mem card.

Sadly, none of the four I’ve picked up raw in the last month or so will make that cut, either, but that’s life and it got me thinking that my present obsession with this card may make for a perfect Your Turn page in the upcoming Rookies Issue of Beckett Sports Card Monthly.

We have a simple question for you, and we’ll run a selection of the best answers in the upcoming issue as long as you leave your name and location in the comments below.

If you could own just one perfect BGS/BVG 10 Rookie Card (any sport), what would it be?

Chris Olds is the editor of Beckett Baseball and Beckett Sports Card Monthly magazines. Have a comment, question or idea? Send an email to him at colds@beckett.com. Follow him on Twitter by clicking here.

It’s no secret to many of those who buy, sell and collect that there’s one type of card that will outsell all the others no matter what happens to a player during or after his career.

It’s the Rookie Card.

We’ll take a look at RCs in the next issue of Beckett Sports Card Monthly, and, as part of that package, we want your take on some of the issues, trivia and more that entails Rookie Cards and collecting. Here are our latest 20 Questions …

Join Beckett Baseball’s Chris Olds for this week’s Chatter Up over on the Beckett Media Facebook page on Wednesday night at 8:30 Central. Up for grabs this week will be … packs of 2013 Topps Allen & Ginter.

O-Pee-Chee hockey hit the market last week with long-awaited Rookies Cards in base and parallel form. But collectors quickly noticed something not on the initial checklist.

Rare Glossy cards appeared in OPC. However, Upper Deck did include them in the final checklist. These Glossy cards are tough to pull, not even one per case. Even regular autographs seem to be easier to get than these cards with facsimile autos on them.

Collectors will spend years, maybe even decades, tracking down some vintage sets.

The 1949 Baltimore Colts Silber’s Bakery set is one of these. It’s one of the hardest sets football collectors have tried to put together.

Cards from this collection pop up every couple of years. Now, two of the cards – showing Johnny Mellus and Charlie O’Rourke – have emerged on eBay from the same seller (thanks to Nearmint’s Vintage Football Cards blog, who linked to the auctions).

If there’s one brand I have obsessed about as a collector more than any other through the years, it’s Topps‘ revived ode to the world champion of 1800s tobacco cards, Allen & Ginter.

When I first saw the sellsheets for the debut edition of this new (but old) baseball card brand back in 2006, I instantly knew I would be digging in for a case in advance — and even more upon arrival — and I did. I knew it would be among the year’s most-popular lines and I was right, though my days at Beckett were still a few years away. One card, among many, was on my sights and I knew it wouldn’t be easy to pull. It was an autograph of a childhood icon — not idol, but icon — Hulk Hogan, sporting his Hulkamania red and yellow among a sea of top-tier Hall of Fame baseball players, superstar athletes, sports legends and others. It a crop that makes that 2006 set one of the landmark releases of the last decade.

The framed minis carry a Victorian aesthetic unlike much within the hobby these says and they struck a chord with me — one that still does to this day. At the time, Hogan only had a single wrestling auto from his “Hollywood” days and a Topps Heritage sig that I had not yet landed, so his Ginter card stood out as one on my collecting radar.

Logic went out the window and I bought pack after pack after pack, clearing Central Florida retail shelves, shredding my Hobby case ordered in advance to find quite a few sigs and more, and driving the price up at an Orlando hobby shop by buying as much as I could where it was no longer fruitful at its pumped-up, replacement price. After countless packs, autos and more, I was without a Hogan, who signed just 200 cards. I finally caved and spent more on getting that one card than I had ever before. (The cost was a hobby box or two if I remember correctly — meanwhile I’m probably still paying for all that wax.)

All these years later, this year another iconic autograph for myself — and many others — arrives in Ginter, and it’s an autograph of someone who, until the last few months, has never appeared on a licensed trading card or signed a single autograph for a card company. And technically he still hasn’t as his four cards found in 2013 Topps Archives and 2013 Topps Allen & Ginter were issued as redemptions.

Topps released the product breakdowns and additional design samples for 2014 Topps baseball cards on Monday, and the theme for the hobby’s longest-running and best-selling brand is one that focuses on “an unprecedented explosion of young talent, a changing of the guard, as rookies and young stars are playing a bigger role than ever.” In other words, it says, “the future is now.”

Set to arrive Jan. 29, each 36-pack Hobby box will contain one autograph or Relic along with 10 cards per pack, while HTA Jumbo boxes will contain 10 packs and pack one autograph and two Relics per box.

SAN DIEGO | For the seventh time in the last eight years, San Diego hosted dozens of the top high school baseball players in the country this past weekend for the Perfect Game All-American Classic where top prospects around the country compete and do one thing to the delight of baseball card collectors.

They sign their first Topps baseball cards for possible inclusion in packs in the future.

In recent years, the East and West team rosters have expanded, and this year was no exception. This year’s game featured 25 East players and 26 West players for a total of 51 — the most ever. For collectors, that means more Bowman cards to chase, and for Topps, a bit more work coordinating the annual Thursday photo shoot and Saturday autograph session.

JasonDufner won his first major championship over the weekend. The American won the PGA Championship.

Dufner nearly won the major in 2011 after losing in a playoff against Keegan Bradley. He saw a five-stroke advantage with four holes left wiped away in the final round. Dufner was not about to let that happen again.

Dufner played in well in 2012, winning two PGA Tour events. Some took notice and he was put on his first trading card in 2012 Leaf Ultimate Golf. He popped up again on cards just last week when Topps included him in 2013 Allen & Ginter.